J.J. Abrams sat down with Wired to give an extensive Q&A on the upcoming little flick he’s directing.
While there isn’t much in the way of spoilers, plot twists or other giveaways in the article about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there are plenty of inside-baseball tricks that clue us in on how Abrams and his colleagues tackled one of the greatest film franchises in history.
Below a few tidbits, but the whole interview is worth a read:
On his approach:
Abrams: “ ‘How do we make this movie delightful?’ That was really the only requirement Larry [Kasden, cowriter of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi] and I imposed on each other: The movie needed to be delightful.”
On not revealing too much, too soon:
Abrams: “We’re walking a tightrope. If you fall on one side it’s no good, because we’re showing too much. If you fall on the other side it’s no good, because we’re not showing anything and we look like arrogant jerks.”
On the next one:
Abrams: “The script for VIII is written…But what Larry and I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts. And we knew where certain things were going. We had meetings with Rian [Johnson, director of VIII] and Ram Bergman, the producer of VIII…I showed Rian an early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping. And as executive producer of VIII, I need that movie to be really good.”
On keeping it real:
Abrams: “When we began working on this film, Larry and I started by making a list of things that we knew held interest for us, the things we wanted to see, the things we felt were important. There’s a very real issue with doing this movie: Every detail, whether it was the design of a costume or the music or a set-dressing choice, must be embraced as coming from Star Wars.”
The old world meeting the new:
Abrams: “It’s a little bit like having a party and having friends from your new school meet friends from your old school, and you think, ‘What’s going to happen?’ ”
Read the whole Q&A over at Wired today. And check out that new international trailer below, again:
